2018 Maryland Men of Faith: The Want of Men

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Maryland Men of Faith

Kameron DeVasher

The Second Conversion of Peter

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Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for another day of life at all, but particularly Lord for a Sabbath day where we live in a place where we can exercise that sweet religious liberty to come apart on your day with your people and study your word that by God's grace may become like you.

So Lord, we ask that you would be our teacher this morning, that you would fulfill in our midst today the promise of the Holy Spirit who would lead us into all truth.

I trust that most of us, by the way you're going to have your Bibles out, yes?

Yes, you might as well get there because it's coming, okay?

But I trust that most of you are familiar to some degree or another with Peter's, the Apostle Peter's basic biography, especially as recorded in the Gospel accounts, as 1 of the first and most prominent of Jesus' disciples, Peter was noted for both his tremendous faith and His equally tremendous falls.

Usually those pinnacles, those 2 endpoints, would be in close proximity.

As soon as Peter goes up, you can expect that what goes up will come down.

It was Peter, of course, who walked on the water with Jesus, for a minute.

When the masses were uncertain of Jesus' divine identity and Christ asked His own disciples, who do you say that I am?

It was Peter, who in Matthew 16, verse 16 said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

But then, you can look it up in your Bible, 6 verses later, It was that same Peter whom Jesus rebuked, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan.

When he tried to correct Christ's prophetic declaration about his impending death.

Jesus Christ was teaching prophecy, and Peter decided to correct his interpretation.

And on the night of his betrayal, it was Peter who declared to Jesus, even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you.

Only to repeatedly betray the Lord just a few hours later.

And these are the things for which Peter is probably best known.

We didn't look up any of those stories but notice that everyone yes we're familiar with that we know that Peter.

We know him as a strong yet struggling disciple who wasn't truly converted until he came face to face with his cowardice, his faithlessness, and his selfishness.

And then, when in genuine repentance he finally surrendered fully that stubborn will of his, Christ mercifully and tenderly welcomed him back.

All of what we've just covered there I kind of count as the first conversion of Peter.

He was called, he was a follower, he was growing, but he didn't really come alive spiritually, consistently, Until he went through that experience of being brought down and then being brought back up.

Now obviously there are many many important lessons that we could draw from any 1 of those encounters.

We could take any 1 of those and that's a message in itself with practical application.

But that's not what I intend to do today.

This morning, I make the bold assumption, I could be incorrect, but I'm guessing that in all likelihood, Most, if not everyone in this room, has already had some personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

That we have had that growing experience, we've had that encounter with Christ, we've had that first conversion experience.

So if we look at the growth of Peter in his first conversion, if we've already experienced it, maybe there is something on the other side of Peter's life that might be more practically applicable to our condition today.

So what I want to focus on today is the post-conversion Peter.

Not Peter from the Gospels, but Peter from the Book of Acts.

So let's take those Bibles and go there to the Book of Acts.

Jesus, of course, is there in the book of Acts in person, at least in the first chapter, as Jesus departs for His heavenly home.

He teaches his disciples over a course of 40 days things about the kingdom of heaven And he says in verse 8 in which is many scholars will say this is the thesis statement of the book of Acts Acts chapter 1 in Verse 8 but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth and as soon as he said that he is taken up into heaven by the way I love those verses We don't it's not even germane to this sermon.

I just like to read them Acts chapter 1 verses 9 through 11 Notice how many times visibility is referred to in these passages now when he had spoken these things while they watched He was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up behold 2 men stood by them in white apparel who also said men of Galilee Why do you stand gazing into heaven this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you?

Saw him go up into heaven The return of Jesus will be a literal, visible event.

Soon and very soon we will see Jesus come again.

This was the faith that Christ left those disciples at hope that they had in their hearts, and Jesus leaves for heaven, and the Apostles leave for where?

He just told them, you're gonna start in Jerusalem and so they don't go to the ends of the earth yet.

Because they were obedient to the Word of Christ and they stay in Jerusalem.

And it is Peter who helps organize that early church because you know they only have 11 at this point and they need 12.

So before the Holy Spirit is poured out they get all of those things organized, Matthias is chosen and that completes Acts chapter 1.

Now in Acts chapter 2 of course it is the day of Pentecost and we simply don't have the time to cover this, but you understand that the Day of Pentecost was not just an experience that the early church had, and later on they looked back fondly and said, we should call that Pentecost.

But the Day of Pentecost was actually Old Testament Feast of Weeks, and that's why everyone was in town.

It's the feast that immediately follows the Passover, which was the last time everyone was in town.

Now, that was only 50 days, that's What Pentecost means, right?

50 days, or the Feast of Weeks, is 7 full weeks, 49 days, and the 50th 1 was the Feast of Weeks.

So on the day of Pentecost, it's only been 50 days.

Less than 2 months earlier, This same group of people who are now assembled on the day of Pentecost were the ones chanting, crucify him, crucify him.

And old Peter, When faced with that mob, did he stand for Christ?

He cowered by the fire and with cursings denied Jesus.

By the way, you should look up sometime, why did he choose cursing?

Sister White tells us, because the disciples were noted for purity of language and he said, what is 1 way I can demonstrate I am not a follower of Jesus?

And he had foul language come out of his mouth.

There's a lesson right there, men of faith.

Different sermon though, don't have time for it.

But now, just literally less than 2 months later, the same Peter who, cowered by the fire into a young girl, denied Jesus Christ with cursings now Has that Holy Spirit power?

Reinstituted into the discipleship right he is a follower of Jesus Jesus for the second time in his ministry said follow me and now Second Corinthians 5 17 says therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a what new creation old things have passed away behold all things have become We're looking at new Peter in Acts chapter 2 and let me tell you something friends Peter when that Holy Spirit was poured out and he understood the truth of the gospel he understood the message of Jesus Christ he had that scripture in his mind and the power of the Holy Spirit and he had an opportunity to redeem the time and right the wrong, he stood up and he preached.

I believe the Seventh-day Adventist Church should be more Pentecostal.

And I know it's being recorded, so I'm going to clear this up.

When you ask anyone in contemporary Christianity, what about Pentecostal?

What images come to your mind when you hear that term?

Charismatic, right, right, big, you hear a lot about music and faith healings, the Holy Roll and all these terminologies, right?

On the day of Pentecost, as recorded in Scripture, how much mention is made of music?

Now, does that mean that music is inherently wrong?

But was it 1 of the keys to the Pentecostal power?

How about speaking in unintelligible languages?

In fact, it tells us specifically the opposite of that.

It said that they were confused because they could understand.

And given that question, Peter says, I got this.

And he stood up and he started to preach.

And by the way, Peter's sermon there is 26 verses long.

13 of those verses are direct quotations from Old Testament Scripture, specifically prophecies pointing forward to Jesus Christ.

It was a prophecy sermon based on the Word of God.

By the way, after the 13 verses that are direct quotations from Scripture, 11 of them are explanations of that, and the final 2 are an appeal.

What made the Day of Pentecost so powerful was it was a Bible-based, prophecy-centered, Christ-focused message of present truth that was preached.

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The Second Conversion of Peter

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